

Use Degraded Landĭegraded lands can be put to use in ways that revive productivity, increase biomass, and promote soil carbon sequestration-all while producing wood, fiber, or food. Solutions that sustainably raise yields on existing farmland can also reduce the pressure to clear other areas. The integration of trees into farming through agroforestry practices is particularly powerful. What and how we grow, graze, or harvest can affect our ability to store carbon in plants and soil. Where ecosystems have been degraded, restoration can help them recover form and function, including absorbing and storing more carbon over time. “Let nature be nature” is a powerful principle-let peatlands, grasslands, and forests continue to do what they do best in a natural state. Lower demand for food and farmland spares nature from additional clearing, protecting carbon sinks and benefiting biodiversity at the same time. Reducing food waste and shifting to plant-rich diets can reduce the destruction of carbon-sequestering trees by reducing the need to transform diverse, healthy ecosystems into croplands and pastures. Because soil with more carbon content can also be more productive and resilient, these questions are critical for building a thriving food system, too.Ĭlimate solutions that enhance land-based greenhouse gas sinks cluster around waste and diets, ecosystem protection and restoration, improved agriculture practices, and prudent use of degraded land. These questions matter not only for emissions but also for maintaining healthy ecosystems. How can we help sequester more carbon in biomass and soil? What can we do to support and enhance natural processes that remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and minimize the addition of more? As a result, land can be a powerful carbon sink, and sinks currently remove close to one-quarter of human-caused emissions from the atmosphere. In addition, soils are, in large part, organic matter-bits of once-living organisms, now decomposing-making them an enormous storehouse of carbon. Plants and healthy ecosystems absorb carbon through photosynthesis and store it in biomass. It’s the fundamental material of all living organisms. Carbon is the core of trees and grasses, mammals and birds, lichens and microbes. In general terms, think of anything on the luxury side of one's in-game life as a money-sink.Land is a critical component of the climate system, actively engaged in the flows of carbon, nitrogen, water, and oxygen-essential building blocks for life. In many MMORPGs, player-housing is so expensive that the average player could not afford it until later levels, no matter their actual need to have a central port for anchoring alts, entertaining friends, larger vaults, etc. The same generally applies to player-housing in some form or fashion. Some might call that game mechanic a money-sink. For instance, personal mounts are quite expensive. This term is also used somewhat derogatorily by players to denote any in-game sub-system that might be what they consider exorbitantly expensive, from a cost-effectiveness point of view. In a game like World of Warcraft, which is primarily driven by a player-created economy, this could have catastrophic effects. This would eventually lead to a complete breakdown of the economic sub-systems. Without various money-sinks, the developers would have no viable means of introducing money into, or removing excess coin from, the game's economy. Money-sink (also known as a "gold sink") is a term used to denote a game mechanic that helps to control the inflation rate and in-game economy.
